City Council endorsements, 9th - 20th Wards

The Tribune continues endorsements today in contested races for the Chicago City Council.

9th Ward: Is Ald. Anthony Beale in peril? He ran in a 2013 special election to replace U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., and didn't even carry his own ward. Three opponents trying to unseat him complain that the ward struggles with chronic crime and unemployment, and it does. This is one of the most challenging communities in the city. Michael LaFargue, a Realtor and 20-year Roseland resident, blames Beale for ignoring the South Michigan Avenue business district. College educator Theodore "Ted" Williams points to poorly performing schools and limited grocery options. Community activist Harold "Noonie" Ward focuses on abandoned properties. Beale can point to hard work that has paid off, though. Method, an environmentally friendly cleaning products manufacturer, will soon open a plant in Pullman Park. That business center, anchored by Wal-Mart, is an example of how tax increment financing can help underdeveloped communities. The Pullman Historic District is expected to be designated as a national park, which would trigger restoration efforts. Give Beale credit, too, for pushing creative ideas to fix the city's traffic camera mess. This is a good field. We're particularly impressed with LaFargue. But our endorsement goes to Beale, who can showcase genuine accomplishments.

10th Ward: For 16 years John Pope has been the go-along, get-along alderman of a ward whose open spaces and blue-collar roots should make it prime turf for industrial redevelopment. For all his loyalty to two mayors, though, Pope's ward hasn't gotten much attention from City Hall. And he's been too comfortable with the Chicago way. A few years ago, Pope hired Thomas Sadzak, who had resigned in 2005 from a job in Streets and Sanitation and was on the city's "Do not hire" list. The city reached a $99,000 settlement with a city laborer who had accused Sadzak of sexually harassing her and threatening to rape her if she complained about him. Pope finally fired Sadzak last year, in the wake of bad publicity. Voters have good alternatives. Our endorsement goes to Juan B. Huizar, an accountant with smart ideas to help rescue Chicago from its lethal level of debt. Check out his responses to our candidate questionnaire. A drive around this Southeast corner of Chicago reveals how much the ward needs a new, more forceful voice at City Hall. Huizar is our pick. Bonus: He thinks Chicago should have a much smaller, less costly City Council.

11th Ward: Just call this Bridgeport-based ward "The Daley Ward." It's the ward represented for generations by Daleys and friends of Daleys. This year, a grandson of the late Richard J. Daley and nephew of Richard M. Daley is running for alderman due to the retirement of James Balcer. Rolling your eyes at another Daley? We've been impressed with Patrick Daley Thompson. A commissioner for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, Thompson is hands-on and delves into the most mundane of MWRD policies. He says he would bring his experience reforming pensions and cutting spending from MWRD to City Hall. In the ward, he would focus on improving Halsted Street by creating a walkable retail environment. The community is thirsting for better shopping and dining options, and Thompson is best suited to make it happen. He is endorsed over Little League organizer John Kozlar and small business owner Maureen Sullivan. Both are strong candidates. But neither makes a case against Thompson, other than he's a Daley.

15th Ward: The new map created a ward that's more than two-thirds Latino and Ald. Toni Foulkes decided to run in the new 16th Ward. The vacant seat here has drawn a large field. Raymond Lopez, a skycap for Southwest Airlines, lost to Foulkes in 2011 but wound up as Democratic committeeman a year later when Foulkes withdrew from the race. Some of his opponents say Lopez has been representing himself as the alderman while Foulkes has focused on the ward she hopes to represent. There's no denying Lopez already has boots on the ground. That feels like a good thing. He has worked to get gang houses demolished and has identified 456 abandoned properties in Englewood. Lopez says businesses in the ward have seen little reinvestment from special taxing districts because the money is spent on programs like graffiti removal with unnecessarily high overhead. He says he'd make sure TIF dollars are directed only to blighted areas. Adolfo Mondragon, an attorney who grew up in Back of the Yards and made his way to Yale and the University of Chicago Law School, also is running. We're fans — we've backed him in two unsuccessful races for the Illinois Senate. Lopez will be an organization regular, but his zeal to deal with community problems wins our endorsement. There are four other candidates, including Raul Reyes, who works for the city clerk's office, and Rafael Yanez, a police officer.

16th Ward: The sad news came Tuesday morning Feb. 10 that Ald. JoAnn Thompson has died. Illness had kept her from participating in her re-election campaign. We offer our sympathies to her family and friends. Thompson had faced four challengers, including 15th Ward Ald. Toni Foulkes, who is trying to find a new political home. Foulkes has hardly made a mark in her community, though. As a member of the City Council's Progressive Caucus, she often votes against the mayor. She says she still gets what she asks for from City Hall — then acknowledges it hasn't been much. To solve the city's financial woes, she mostly wants to "tax the richer folks." Thompson unseated Ald. Shirley Coleman in 2007 with a big boost from labor unions, who were angry over Coleman's support for a Wal-Mart in the ward. Our endorsement goes to Stephanie Coleman, daughter of the former alderman, who's working hard to sell herself as the fighter this ward desperately needs.

17th Ward: There's drama in the 17th Ward, which includes Auburn-Gresham and West Englewood. Ald. Latasha Thomas decided to retire in the face of a challenge from her former staff assistant, Glenda Franklin, and David Moore, an assistant with the Cook County Board of Review who ran in 2011. At our endorsement meeting, Franklin and Moore spent most of their energy arguing over which one deserved to be next in line for the job, as though it were up to the Democratic organization rather than the voters. James Dukes, a minister, was able to stay above the fray. "I'm not a product of whatever machine created them," he says. We admire Franklin's vision of a "new normal" for the ward — safe streets, better schools, more jobs — but she didn't offer much of a road map. Dukes, though, has some good ideas. He proposes a call center that could handle jobs such as collections for the city of Chicago or lost baggage claims for airlines operating out of Midway Airport. He also envisions a "restaurant row" to fill the void of sit-down eateries in the ward. That would keep local dollars in the neighborhoods and attract diners from outside the ward, he says. Dukes has been deeply involved in anti-violence efforts in the community. He is endorsed.

18th Ward: If Ald. Lona Lane took a long vacation on a faraway island, would anyone notice she was gone? She rarely speaks up in council meetings and rarely challenges the status quo. She's not much of a presence in the ward, either. Asked what she does to promote development there, Lane wrote on our survey: "I hand out information about 18th Ward boundaries, demographics, schools and churches to prospective businesses and developers." Voters need someone who's a lot more aggressive than that. Chuks Onyezia, who earned our endorsement in 2011, is an outstanding candidate. He's a patent attorney with an MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and publisher of a community newsletter. He says the ward has plenty of potential but nobody to fight for it. "We have the location," he says. "We need the infrastructure." Michael Davis, a lifelong resident of the area and the son of two Chicago police officers, also is impressive. Onyezia and Davis blame the ward's crime problems on lack of opportunity for young people, who compete with senior citizens for low-wage jobs. Both would leverage tax increment financing districts to bring development to the ward. Attorney Brandon Loggins should learn to think for himself. His answers on our candidate survey were copied in part from Onyezia's 2011 survey. Democratic committeeman Derrick Curtis also is running.

19th Ward: The far Southwest Side's 19th Ward competes for jobs and businesses against suburbs that offer bigger lots, lower taxes, more incentives and fewer rules. Freshman Ald. Matt O'Shea has worked hard to keep the businesses he has and attract new ones. A chronic eyesore of vacant city property along Western Avenue finally is being developed into a gymnastics and hockey center. Several once-empty storefronts now feature new restaurants, and O'Shea's office helped negotiate a new deal to finance the Beverly Arts Center. To protect mom-and-pop shops, O'Shea voted against the minimum wage hike and the plastic bag ban. Prominent local physician Anne Schaible blames O'Shea for the loss of some local businesses — including a hardware store that had been in the ward for generations. She says she would be a more hands-on alderman and independent of party politics. Neither of them offers strong ideas on saving the city's pension funds, though many police officers, firefighters and teachers live in the ward. We endorsed Schaible in 2011 and we're still impressed with her, but O'Shea has worked hard to meet the demands of his active and engaged constituents. O'Shea is endorsed.

20th Ward. Some of the city's most startling murders in recent years have occurred in and around this ward. A 6-month-old baby was shot and killed while sitting on her father's lap in a parked car. Gunmen opened fire on a basketball game in a Back of the Yards park, hitting a 3-year-old boy in the face. He survived. Ald. Willie Cochran is vying for a third term. A retired police sergeant, he brings a well-rounded perspective to battling street violence. Only through a holistic approach of better schools, a stronger jobs climate and stable families will Chicago's most gang infested neighborhoods get safer. Cochran has called for more police officers, installed more police cameras in the ward and supported tougher penalties for gang members caught with guns. He is endorsed over Kevin Bailey, a civil engineer, and pastor Andre Smith. Two others are on the ballot.